In this work, we propose a testing procedure to distinguish between the different approaches for computing complexity. Our test does not require a direct comparison between the approaches and thus avoids the issue of choice of gates, basis, etc. The proposed testing procedure employs the information-theoretic measures Loschmidt echo and Fidelity; the idea is to investigate the sensitivity of the complexity (derived from the different approaches) to the evolution of states. We discover that only circuit complexity obtained directly from the wave function is sensitive to time evolution, leaving us to claim that it surpasses the other approaches. We also demonstrate that circuit complexity displays a universal behaviour — the complexity is proportional to the number of distinct Hamiltonian evolutions that act on a reference state. Due to this fact, for a given number of Hamiltonians, we can always find the combination of states that provides the maximum complexity; consequently, other combinations involving a smaller number of evolutions will have less than maximum complexity and, hence, will have resources. Finally, we explore the evolution of complexity in non-local theories; we demonstrate the growth of complexity is sustained over a longer period of time as compared to a local theory.

We propose a new diagnostic for quantum chaos. We show that the time evolution of complexity for a particular type of target state can provide equivalent information about the classical Lyapunov exponent and scrambling time as out-of-time-order correlators. Moreover, for systems that can be switched from a regular to unstable (chaotic) regime by a tuning of the coupling constant of the interaction Hamiltonian, we find that the complexity defines a new time scale. We interpret this time scale as recording when the system makes the transition from regular to chaotic behavior.

We study the variance in the measurement of observables during scattering events, as computed using amplitudes. The classical regime, characterised by negligible uncertainty, emerges as a consequence of an infinite set of relationships among multileg, multiloop amplitudes in a momentum-transfer expansion. We discuss two non-trivial examples in detail: the six-point tree and the five-point one-loop amplitudes in scalar QED. We interpret these relationships in terms of a coherent exponentiation of radiative effects in the classical limit which generalises the eikonal formula, and show how to recover the impulse, including radiation reaction, from this generalised eikonal. Finally, we incorporate the physics of spin into our framework.

Electric-magnetic duality, the Newman-Janis shift, and the double copy all act by elementary operations on three-point amplitudes. At the same time, they generate a network of interesting classical solutions spanning from the Coulomb charge via the dyon to the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime. We identify the amplitudes corresponding to each of these solutions, working to all orders in spin, but to leading perturbative order. We confirm that the amplitudes double-copy when the solutions are related by the classical double copy. Along the way we show that the Kerr-Taub-NUT solution corresponds to a gravitational electric-magnetic duality rotation acting on the Kerr solution, again to all orders in spin, and demonstrate that the asymptotic charges also transform simply under our operations.

We compute the semi-classical potential arising from a generic theory of cubic gravity, a higher derivative theory of spin-2 particles, in the framework of modern amplitude techniques. We show that there are several interesting aspects of the potential, including some non-dispersive terms that lead to black hole solutions (including quantum corrections) that agree with those derived in Einsteinian cubic gravity (ECG). We show that these non-dispersive terms could be obtained from theories that include the Gauss- Bonnet cubic invariant G3. In addition, we derive the one-loop scattering amplitudes using both unitarity cuts and via the leading singularity, showing that the classical effects of higher derivative gravity can be easily obtained directly from the leading singularity with far less computational cost.

We show that at 1PN all four-dimensional black hole solutions in asymptotically flat spacetimes can be derived from leading singularities involving minimally coupled three-particle amplitudes. Furthermore, we show that the rotating solutions can be derived from their non-rotating counterparts by a spin-factor deformation of the relevant minimally coupled amplitudes. To show this, we compute the tree-level and one-loop leading singularities for a heavy charged source with generic spin s. We compute the metrics both with and without a spin factor and show that we get both the Kerr-Newman and Reissner- Nordström solutions respectively. We then go on to compute the impulse imparted to the probe particle in the infinite spin limit and show that the spin factor induces a complex deformation of the impact parameter, as was recently observed for Kerr black holes in [1]. We interpret these observations as being the on-shell avatar of the Janis-Newman algorithm for charged black holes.